chronology of events in
Jose Manx's life
1853
January 28: Jose Julian Marti y Perez is born in Havana. His
parents, Mariano Marti and Leonor Perez, were Spaniards; his
father came from Valencia, and his mother, from the Canary
Islands.
1865
Marti begins studying at the Havana Municipal Boys School with
Rafael Maria de Mendive, a teacher who greatly influences hi;
sense of patriotism.
1868
October 10: The Ten Years War begins against the Spanish colonial
power in Cuba.
1869
January 19: Marti has his first political essay published in the singleedition El Diablo Cojuelo {The Crippled Devil), followed shortly
by his own newspaper La Patria Libre (Free Homeland), which
made only one appearance, publishing his dramatic poem
"Abdala."
October 21: Marti is arrested and sent to the National Prison,
accused of treason. A few days earlier, a group of Spanish
Volunteer troops had searched the house of a friend (Fermin
Valdes Dominguez) and had found a compromising letter,
accusing a former fellow student for "apostasy" for enlisting in
the Spanish armed forces. The letter was signed by Marti and
Valdes Dominguez, who is subsequently imprisoned for six
mr»nt-V»c
2 Jos6 Mart! Reader
March 4: Marti is condemned to six years' hard labor and sent to
work in a prison quarry.
August-December: His parents manage to get his sentence
commuted to exile—which he began on the Isle of Pines—and
then obtain permission for him to live in Spain.
February: Marti arrives in Madrid, after spending a few days in
Cadiz. He publishes his short work, El presidio politico en Cuba
{Political Prison in Cuba).
May 31: He enrolls in several courses at Madrid's Central
University.
November 27: Eight medical students in Havana are shot for
protesting against Spanish colonial rule. This has a profound
effect on Marti's view of Spain and Cuba's struggle for
independence. He writes an ode about the event.
February 15: Marti's short essay "La Republica espanola ante de la
Revolucion cubana" ("The Spanish Republic and the Cuban
Revolution") is published as a pamphlet in Madrid.
May: He moves to Zaragoza and enrolls in the Literary University
while continuing his other studies.
June-October: During this period, Marti obtains a Bachelor of Civil
and Canon Law and Doctoral Degree of Philosophy and
Humanities with exceptional grades.
December 1874-February 1875: He travels from Spain to Mexico,
stopping over in Paris, Le Havre, Liverpool, New York (where
he stays 11 days), Havana, Progreso, Campeche and Veracruz.
February: Marti arrives in Mexico City, where he is reunited with
his parents and sisters and meets Manuel Mercado.
May: He becomes a member of the editorial staff of the Revista
Universal, a newspaper on which he has worked since March.
J
Writings on the Americas 3
December 19: His short play Amor con amor se paga {Love Must Be
Repaid with Love) has its first performance.
1876
February 20: Marti begins to work on El Socialista, organ of the
Great Workers' Circle of Mexico (GCOM).
June: The Workers' Hope (EE) society, whose headquarters were in
the capital, names him a representative to the first workers'
congress ever held in Mexico, although there is no documentation
on his participation.
December 29: He leaves Mexico shortly after General Porfirio Diaz
takes power through a bloody civil war.
1877
January-April: Marti arrives in Havana clandestinely, then goes on
to Progreso and to Guatemala.
April: He begins teaching at the Normal School in Guatemala.
May 29: He is appointed as a professor at the university of French,
English, Italian and German literature.
December 20: Marti returns to Mexico City, where he marries
Carmen Zayas Bazan. He also publishes his pamphlet Guatemala
there.
1878
February 10; The Zanjon Pact is signed in Cuba, ending the Ten
Years War and allowing exiles to return to the island.
April 6: Marti resigns from the Normal School in protest against the
arbitrary removal of its principal Jose Maria Izaguirre. This is his
last public opposition to the policies of Guatemalan President
Justo Rufino Barrios.
July-August: He travels to Honduras and then to Havana.
October: He immerses himself in the conspiracies of the clubs in
Havana attached to the Cuban Revolutionary Committee (CRC),
which is based in New York.
November 22: His only son, lose Francisco, is born.
4 Jose Marti Reader
March 18: The Central Revolutionary Club (CCR) is founded in a
meeting of conspirators in Havana, and Marti is elected VicePresident.
June: The Cuban Revolutionary Committee names Marti as its
deputy delegate on the island.
August 24-25: The so-called Little War of Independence begins in
Santiago de Cuba.
September 17: Marti is arrested and accused (without process of law)
of being linked to the insurrectional movement.
September-December: He is deported to Spain, from where he
leaves clandestinely for France and then New York.
January 9: A few days after his arrival in New York, the Cuban
Revolutionary Committee resolves to make Marti one of its
directors.
March 26: He becomes acting Chairman of the Committee when
General Calixto Garcia, its Chairman, leaves for Cuba. General
Garcia is taken prisoner in August, and the war ends
unsuccessfully.
January: Marti travels from New York to Caracas, Venezuela.
February-March: He works as a teacher in the Santa Maria and
Villegas schools.
June: He contributes to La Opinion Nacional in Caracas.
July 1: The first issue of Revista Venezolana {Venezuelan Magazin^,
which Marti finances and edits, is published. After the second
issue of the publication is distributed, General Antonio Guzman
Blanco, President of Venezuela, accuses Marti of interfering in the
internal affairs of the country and orders him,to leave Venezuela.
August 20: From New York, he writes what is considered to be his
first feature article for La Opinion Nacional.
April: Marti's book of poems Ismaelillo, written in Caracas, is
published in New York.
Wr i t i n g s o n t h e A m e r i c a s 5
July 15: He writes his first feature article for La Nacion of Buenos
Aires.
July 20: Marti asks Generals M^imo Gomez and Antonio Maceo to
help organize the pro-independence forces and oppose those who
seek Cuba's annexation to the United States.
1883
March: Marti begins to work on La America magazine. The
following year, he becomes its editor.
1884
October 10: Marti's first public speech in New York com
memorating the beginning of Cuba's first War of Independence in
1868.
October 20: Marti writes to General M^imo Gomez explaining
that he is withdrawing his support for the revolutionary activities
of Generals Gomez and Maceo— whom he had joined as soon as
they reached New York— because he is concerned that they are
putting personal aims ahead of the interests of the movement.
1885
His novel Amistad funesta {Ill-Fated Friendship is published (as
Adelaida Ral) as a serial in El Latino Americano of New York.
1886
May 15: Marti sends in his first feature article to El Partido Liberal of
Mexico.
1887
April 16: Marti is appointed Uruguay's Consul in New York.
October 10: He gives a speech to pro-independence emigres, one of
many on this anniversary of the "Cry of Yara" in 1868.
November 30: He is elected Chairman of the Executive Committee
that was set up to organize revolutionary activities by emigres
and Cubans on the island. (Five months later, he acknowledges
that no significant advances had been made.)
6
Jose
Marti
Reader
1 8 8 9
March 25: The daily New York Evening Post publishes Marti's
"Vindication of Cuba," a letter replying to two anti-Cuban
articles that had appeared in the U.S. press. He includes both of
those articles and his reply in a pamphlet, Cuba y las Estados
Unidos {Cuba and the United States), which he translated and for
which he wrote the introduction.
July: The first issue of La Edad de Ore {The Golden Age), a magazine
for children of the Americas, appears. In the following months,
he put out three more issues.
September 28: He writes his first feature article about the Pan
American Congress, which is to begin in Washington on October
2. He warns of the expansionist designs of the United States in
Latin America— a theme he develops in his address to the Latin
American literary society ("Mother America") in December.
1 8 9 0
' January: Along with Rafael Serra, Marti founds La Liga (The
League) in New York for the education and advancement of
black Cuban workers in that city.
July 24: Marti is named Consul of the Argentine Republic in New
York. A week later, he also becomes Paraguay's Consul.
1891
January 1: Marti publishes his important essay "Nuestra America"
("Our America") in La Revista Ilustrada of New York.
February-April: As Uruguay's delegate, Marti attends the sessions
of the American International Monetary Commission and
actively defends the rights of Latin America.
October 11: He resigns as the Consul of the Republics of Argentina,
Uruguay and Paraguay.
October: His Versos sencillos {Simple Verses) is published.
November 26 and 27: Marti travels to Florida and gives important
speeches at meetings of Cuban exiles. He joins the Patriotic
Cuban League.
November 28: In the farewell that the exiles in Tampa give him, the
resolutions drafted by Marti, which seek to unify the Cubans
revolutionary movement, are approved.
Writings on the Americas 7
1892
January 5: The Cuban Revolutionary Party is formed with aims and
statutes which Marti had written and discussed with the leaders of
the main organizations in Key West.
March 14: The first issue of Patria, which Marti financed and edited,
appears. As the voice of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, its goal
is to promote the cause of Cuban independence.
April 8: Marti is elected a delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary
Party. He is reelected in each of the next three years.
April 10: The Cuban Revolutionary Party is proclaimed in Key
West, Tampa and New York.
July 3: Marti begins the first of many trips to places where the
Cuban emigres live, doing intensive organizational work.
September 11: In La Reforma, Santo Domingo, Marti meets with
General Maximo Gomez, who will be commander-in-chief of the
war for independence.
1893
May: Marti clarifies the Cuban Revolutionary Party's position on
the armed uprising in Cuba, which the Party had not ordered.
July: He meets General Antonio Maceo in Costa Rica after having
conferred with Gomez in Montecristi, Santo Domingo, some
days earlier.
1894
April 8: Marti meets with Gomez in New York.
June: He visits Costa Rica and exchanges views with Generals
Antonio and Jose Maceo concerning war preparations.
July-August: He goes to Mexico seeking political and financial
support.
December 8: Marti writes and cosigns—with Commander Enrique
Collazo, representative of the conspirators on the island, and
Colonel Jose Maria Rodriguez, on behalf of General Gomez— the
Femandina Plan for an uprising, which he sends to Cuba.
1895
January: A traitor alerts U.S. authorities, who seize both the ships
that were to have taken the expeditionaries to Cuba and their
supplies and equipment, thus frustrating the Femandina Plan.
8 Jose Marti Reader
January 29: From New York Marti sends the order for the uprising
to the island.
February 7: He arrives in Montecristi, Santo Domingo, where he
meets with General Gomez.
February 24: Cuba's War of Independence begins.
March 25: Marti and Gomez sign the Manifesto of Montecristi.
April 9: Marti and a small group of revolutionaries set out by boat
for Cuba.
April 11: After many vicissitudes, Marti manages to land at Playita,
in the eastern part of the island, together with Generals M^imo
Gomez and Francisco Borrero, Colonel Angel Guerra, Cesar
Salas and Marcos del Rosario.
April 15: General Gomez informs Marti that the Chiefs of Staff have
resolved to recognize him as Cuban Revolutionary Party
Delegate and to give him the rank of Major-General in the
L i b e r a t i o n A r m y.
May 2: Marti writes a manifesto in the form of a letter to the editor
of the New York Herald, which he and Gomez sign.
May 18: He writes his last letter (to Manuel Mercado) which he
never completes.
May 19: Marti is fatally wounded in his first armed combat against
enemy troops at Dos Rios, Oriente Province.
Introduction
JoseMa
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sense of the word. Born of Spanish parents in colonial Cuba,
he witnessed the oppressive measures imposed on the island
by the Spanish colonial administration. Early in his life he
made the decision to fight for the liberation of his country and
similarly oppressed Antillean peoples. But Marti was not merely a
political revolutionary: he was a revolutionary in literature who gave
expression to the emerging ideas and emotions of a modernizing
world in a language and style that perplexed and fascinated many of
his contemporaries. Manuel Gutierrez Najera (1859-1895), for
example, wrote of the Cuban that at times he could not follow his
ideas, "because his ideas have sturdy wings, strong lungs, and rise
inordinately ... [in his] magical style we lose ourselves from time to
time, like Reynaldo in the garden of Armida... "
Marti's conscious resolve to devote himself to revolutionary
political and literary ideals became clear shortly after the first
Cuban war against Spain (1868). During this period he
participated in the publication of clandestine newspapers and
circulars, including El Diablo Cojuelo (The Crippled Devil), and
later. La Patria Libre (Free Homeland). In the latter, in 1869, he
published a dramatic poem, "Abdala," in which the main
character sacrifices his life to defend his country against its op
pressors. For a while the colonial regime took no action against
Marti; but in 1869, when he and a friend, Fermin Valdes
Dominguez, signed a letter questioning the political behavior of
one of their classmates, Marti was accused of treason against the
Spanish colonial regime. He was tried and condemned to six
years' hard labor in the quarries of San Lazaro in Havana.
The San Lazaro experience is recorded in a political essay
"Political Prison in Cuba," published in 1871, that is both moving
and revealing: moving, because it records an adolescent's reactionj